Mary McIntyre (1966) was born in Northern Ireland where she lives and works. She graduated Master of Fine Art at Ulster University in 1990, where she is now a Reader in Fine Art. In 2016 she founded TONN Recordings, an electronic music project dedicated to the genres of coldwave and minimal synth.
McIntyre has explored different types of ‘space’ in her work in myriad ways over the past three decades, and these investigations often focus on photographic depictions of places that have been forgotten or overlooked. The images she makes are frequently imbued with a psychological charge, hinting at traces of human presence and activity in evocative landscapes or interiors.
Through her imagery, she seeks to convey transformations that occur in these locations at specific times of day, when for a fleeting moment, the play of light can transform an otherwise mundane environment. Rooms or exterior locations, which on first viewing may appear familiar, can embody the potency of a stage set.
Ideas of interior space (both physical and psychological) have long reverberated throughout her practice, and the foundations of this is evident in her photographic images of quiet interiors and abandoned urban space; places which at first appear to be empty and unremarkable. Upon closer inspection, however, they slowly reveal a rich tapestry of traces and associations – frayed and discoloured carpet tiles, stained walls, makeshift partitions, and disturbed dust and detritus all speak of previous occupation by unknown inhabitants. However, these spaces do not always fully reveal themselves. Often their previous function is ambiguous and their abandonment infused with a sense of unease.
McIntyre is also interested in how a photograph occupies a gallery as a physical object, and how the environment surrounding the image might inform how a work is experienced. She uses sculptural installation and architectural interventions as a means of activating the rooms that her photographs inhabit, and in doing so makes a viewer more aware of the act of ‘looking’.
Her installations intersect the gallery in different ways to create bespoke environments from which to consider each image. The experience of looking at the artwork is intensified in a multi-sensory way by the subtle textures, objects and sounds that McIntyre places it in dialogue with. The materials and colours in these installations connect to qualities and details that are found in the spaces shown in the images, blurring the boundaries of physical and pictorial space.
In recent years, McIntyre has become increasingly engaged in collaborative and cross-disciplinary practice, in particular as the founder of the electronic record label TONN Recordings. In her recent projects, McIntyre has commissioned modular synth compositions by Sean McBride of Martial Canterel made in response to her photographs.
Adding to the already rich and layered environments crafted by McIntyre in the her work, the elements of spectacle and performance hinted at through her photographs and installations, are heightened by the almost cinematic feel of being surrounded by music in her exhibitions.
email: info@marymcintyre.org